Monday, May 27, 2013

Auction House Lessons for Contemporary Artists

EDITORIAL

Auction Houses teach
us a Few Lessons

(A work by Manjit Bawa- Image for Representational Purpose only)

After the 19th March 2013 Amaya Collection
Auction by Sotheby’s in New York, once again the auction house major is going
to test the values of Indian Modern and Contemporary art with its 16th
June 2013 auction in London. Going by the reports and looking at the cross
section of the works of art which would go under hammer, one could make it sure
that the Indian contemporary art has to wait for a few more years to earn
respectability and profit in auction. Though the names likes Atul Bhalla, Abir
Karmakar and Pablo Bartholomew have been popped up in the list, the Rs.9.44
Crore auction is pitching its focus on the moderns that once again include the
works of M.F.Husain, Souza, Raza and Gaitonde. Hopes are invested in the works
of Jogen Chowdhury and Manjit Bawa also.

What do such auctions and their result indicate? Vintage
makes profit not the recent fads. Works of art that have been made, sold and
bought during the euphoric days of market boom do not feature anywhere in these
auctions. If the reports are to be believed, the successful Indian art auction
house, Saffron Art makes two types of auctions; one the regular ones that
emulate quality and quantity of the international auction houses and two, the
absolute auctions. While the former has a base price for bidding, the latter
has no such base prices. Anybody who offers an initial price of the works of
art which come under hammer sets the tone of the absolute auctions. A work of
art with an original market price of Rs.Two Lakhs could easily go for
Rs.40,000/- (Forty Thousand) or less than that if the bidder makes a very mean
move. While the moderns command a decent base price, the contemporaries are
hawked out through the absolute auctions, once again making the potential
buyers of the primary market lose their interest and trust in contemporary art.

It is not a rosy picture for contemporary art so far. The
auctions by now have set a clear pattern: the artists who had been active till
1980s are adjudged as modern masters. The current pattern shows that the
post-Independence Modernism of India starting with the Bombay Progressives is
yet to be monetized. Many people have bought the works of the Progressives and
also the artists who were functioning from different parts of India at that
time. All these works have to be now brought into the market through auctions.
The auction houses will cleverly go by decades. The introduction of Jogen
Chowdhury and Manjit Bawa shows that now the auction houses are focusing on
1970s and 1980s. Good thing is that those artists who have been pushed into
oblivion might get recognition as Gaitonde or Tyeb Mehta got their due through
these auctions and the bad things is the artists of 1990s to now will have to
wait another twenty five years to get their prices. The days of making instant
money have become a thing of past.

In a way, these auction houses do a good service to the art
scene in the future economies like India. The auction results that majorly
focus on the Moderns and the following periods step by step will stabilize the
primary market for the contemporary art. Though there will not be any blind
buying, those futurist buyers and collectors would come back to the primary
market to collect contemporary art for fairer and logical prices. None would
pay a ridiculous Rs.24 Lakhs for a five by five canvas while its actual price
could be and should be somewhere around Rs.5 lakhs, if one thinks in terms of
investment and profit using the logic of banking. The new reality would put the
contemporary artists in a tight spot. They need to work hard and should be
satisfied with realistic prices. It is applicable to the gallerists and
middlemen too.

I am happy that these auction houses fill in us with a sense
of reality. Each auction result should hammer sense right into the heads of all
those players in the art market, including the artists and gallerists. Last
winter and the ongoing summer have been quite terrible for art players as the
funds have been considerably dried up with the absolute absence of buyers from
the market. The auction results, I hope, will bring right thinking buyers to
the primary market who would offer (and would be offered) logical prices to the
works that they would like to collect. I am sure that those collectors with a
plan for the coming twenty five years only would make some profit out of their
collection of contemporary art. This is a challenge for all. My words on art
have never gone wrong.

JohnyML

NEWS

The Cusp of Culture Change

Kynkyny Art Gallery,
Bangalore presents a solo show of recent works by artist Elayaraja. The show
titled, ‘On the Cusp’ is a series of oil on canvas paintings, rendered in a
realistic style and captures the essence of rural life which is fast fading.

Elayaraja, a Tamil Nadu
based artist with a Masters degree in painting from the Government College of
Fine Arts, Chennai, works in various mediums, oil on canvas being his
stronghold.

Taking inspirations from
great masters like Raja Ravi Varma, Elayaraja tries to capture the essence of
Indian-ness and rural life in his works. Essentially painted in the realistic
style of figuration, he builds the visual with sensitive light and shade play
in the image and the protagonists, mainly women, seem to blend in the composition
yet appear distinct and appealing.

Elayaraja’s show, ‘On
The Cusp’ is about his concerns for the slow degradation and diminishing of
culture and tradition which was rich and vibrant especially in rural India, by
the onslaught of rapid urbanization.

The show is on view from
the 30th of May 2013, to the 17th of May 2013.

United with a Difference

Galerie Max Mueller, of
the Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, presents a unique show titled, ‘United Machines
and A Collar System’ by two artists with a disparate background of
professional, social and every other aspects between their lives. The show is a
unified yet individually incompatible array of artistic expression.

The participating
artists are Jens Ulrich a German artist in residence in India, and artist
Davinder Singh Sokhi, originally from
Punjab, but settled in Mumbai for decades. Jens on his research in the gullies
of Mumbai came across specific hand- painted signboard cutouts in the business
district of Mumbai, which mostly were of machines and machine parts. The sign
boards done by Davinder, were rendered in a matter of fact unostentatious way and
with precision.

Jens himself has adapted
to the way of dressing ever since his stay in India and he creates his own
clothes out of fabric and paper cutouts. In this show, painted metal cutouts of
machines, made by Davinder are juxtaposed with the paper and fabric cutouts of
Jen’s clothes designs to portray two very varied aspects of culture and their
possible similarity. Though the similarity may only arise in the liking of
materials, thin oil paint on metal and casein paint on fabric, by the artists.

The show attempts to
essentially comprehend the nature and beginnings of their exchange to fully
understand the scope of this exhibition, socially and aesthetically.

The show is on view from
the 30th of May 2013 to the 18th of June 2013.

Revisiting Kalighat Art

Arts Of The Earth gallery,
New Delhi, hosts a show of traditional paintings, of the Kalighat style. The
show titled,’ Kalighat - II’ presents works from the patua artists of Bengal
and the Kalighat paintings on display are a reminder of this beautiful and simplistic
art form.

The golden age of the
Kalighat paintings stretches from the mid 19th century to the 1920s, when it
flourished.The painters of this art were found in specially set up bazaar like
places around the areas of the Kalighat temple
from where they get their name and anyone could find the works for
purchase easily.

The
charm of the Kalighat paintings lies in the fact that they captured the essence
of daily life and they influence modern artists like the late Jamini Roy in his
works.

This show is an attempt to
revive those moments of fame of the diminishing art form and perhaps encourage
people to buy and learn it from the masters of this art. This show exhibits
some rare and never seen pieces of that period on display.

The show is on view till the
24th of June 2013.

Moving Ahead with Abstraction

Jamaat Art Gallery,
Mumbai, presents a solo show of recent works by artist Krishna Pulkundwar. Th show titled, ‘ Moving Ahead’ is Krishna’s
progression in his abstract language and art practice from his earlier series.

The development of an
artist’s oeuvre is amply visible in Krishna’s new work. He has chosen to
display his recent works which derive inspirations from his childhood and his
movement in life from a rural to an urban scenario. Krishna has been a
landscape painter, and his earlier work saw glimpses of nature related
abstractions. This series however, displays distinct understanding of the
surrounding changes, and visuals of a daily commuter in a city. Buildings,
windows, doors, interspersed with memories of childhood gulmohar trees, rays of
sun light in the homes, all of these things act as muses to this artist.

His recent works,
dominated by the use of bold colours, and definitive, confident textural
nuances, and inimitable relief work on the canvases, announce the arrival of
the new age, dynamic abstractionist.